Upholstery trim panel



March 14, 1939.

M. S. RANDALL UPHOLSTERY TRIM PANEL v Filed OCK.. 25, 1935 l -v-v-v 7%,0/1 W///////////////// mf Mmmm m ny W ww ww Patented Mar. I4, 19u39 UNITEDv sTATEs PATENT OFFICE Woodall Industries Incorporated, Detroit,

y Mich., a corporation oi Michigan Application October 25, 1935 Serial No. 46,731

8 Claims.

My invention relates to improvements in upholstery trim panels and particularly to those intended foruse in the interior of an automobile body.

An object is to provide a trim panel which presents the same appearance as an expensive upholstery trim panel and which may be easily fabricated and at a low cost. My improved panel is durable and of a sturdy construction. It is self-lsupporting.

It comprises a foundation lamination, a lamination of wadding, a relatively thin flexible embossed lamination overlying the wadding, and

preferably a layer of suitable upholstery material such as upholstery cloth overlying the embossed lamination.

Heretofore in the fabrication of trim panels provided with wedding or padding to give a rich upholstered appearance, it has been the practice to sew the upholstery trim fabric to the foundation board through the Wedding along determined lines to outlinev the desired upholstery design. It has also been the practice to provide sections of wadding of predetermined shape and size and to fabricate these sections into the panel to give 'it the desired appearance.

Stitching through the foundation lamination produced a line of weakness along the line of stitching which was highly undesirable. Fabrication of a panel in this fashion was also an expensive operation. I propose to so fabricate a panel that it will present the same appearance as a panel wherein the wadding has been stitched to the foundation board. My fabricated panel will employ wadding so as to give the soft cushion effect and appearance but the stitching is eliminated, and the panel furthermore possesses advantages and features of superiority 'due to its novel fabrication.

A meritorious feature of my invention resides in the provision of a lamination of relatively thin flexible material possessing thermoplastic characteristics and being self-sustaining which is adapted to be embossed to present a determined design and to permanently retain said embossed contour, which layer overlies a. layer of wadding being spaced by the wadding from the foundation lamination. This embossed layer preferably holds the wadding against the foundation layer and holds it to the shape of the embossed design. Upholstery trim cloth is preferably spread over the embossed layer and adhesively secured thereto. The complete panel presents upon' its upholstered surface the design of the embossment given to the thermoplastic layer.

'I'he wadding underneath gives the padded effect. The foundation layer may be built of thermoplastic material 4such as asphalt impregnated fiber board (K B board is a commercial variety which is acceptable) or it may be of plain ber board as it is not necessary that the foundation layer be capable of embossment.

The several advantages, meritorious features, and objects of my invention will more fully appear from the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a trim panel embodying my invention,

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view through a fragment of a panel,

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view through another fragment of the panel, and

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view through the complete panel showing the several laminations which make up the same.

While it has heretofore been commercially practiced to form a panel by adhesively securing upholstery cloth direct to a thermoplastic fibrous foundation board and then embossing this structure so as to simulate an upholstered panel, such constructions lacked the soft cushioning character and appearance of a true upholstered panel wherein wadding or padding was employed. Upholstered panels employing wadding are very old and in fabricating the same there is generally used a foundation board over which the wadding is spread and upholstery cloth overlies the Wadding. To give the desired upholstered effect a common practice is to stitch the upholstery cloth through the wedding to the foundation board. In many 'cases the waddingis cut to a definite design so that there are raised areas, where the wadding is employed, and debossed areas in the finished product between the areas of wadding. This method of fabrication is expensive and it requires hand labor and stitching of the material.

By my improved invention I fabricate a trim panel which employs wadding, but I do not stitch the wadding or upholstery cloth to provide an embossed design. I obtain the embossed effect through other means. While I have shown it in a trim panel such as is employed in the interior of automobile closed bodies it might be employed in various plans.

In the embodiment illustrated the foundation lamination is indicated as I0. It may be formed of ber board or other suitable material. If desired this foundation layer may be of a moisture resistant brous material such as a composition fiber board carrying a moisture resistant binder such as asphalt. A form sold commercially under the name of K B board has been found acceptable.

Upon one surface of this foundation layer I juxtapose a layer of felt or other suitable wadding I2 in the form. shown. This wadding, as shown, does not extend to 'cover the entire area of the foundation layer but it might so extend if it were so desired. This material may be a good grade of hair felt or paper felt or any other suitable soft deformable cushioning material such as is capable of being used for this purpose.

I then provide a layer of thermoplastic material which may be a layer of thin strong fibrous asphalt impregnated material such as the K Bv board above mentioned which is capable of being embossed under heat and pressure and of permanently retaining its embossed shape. This layer of material is normally self-form sustaining in that it will retain the curvature and embossed design given to it. It is, however, relatively thin and fiexible. In the drawing it is indicated as I4. To this layer of thermoplastic material 4 I secure a layer or covering of upholstery material I 6. Any type of upholstery material such as suitable fabric, or the like may be used. These two layers I4 and I8 are adhesively secured together. They are stamped to the desired embossed design. The layer I4 will permanently retain this design andv hold the covering layer I 6 thereto. 'I'his two ply structure is then juxtaposed over the Wadding I2 as shown in Fig. 4. It is adhesively secured to the foundation layer I along the margin beyond the wadding. This upholstery covering is folded over unto the back as shown at I3. The indentations and debossments 20 in the.layer I4 force their way into the easily compressible felt so that the wadding is held by the embossed layer against the foundation layer to the design embossed in layer I4 and while the embossed design is determined by the layer I4 this layer is supported throughout the extent of the wadding by the soft wadding material so that a true upholstered appearance and character results with the wadding yielding underneath the upholstery layer to pressure brought to bear against the upholstery so as to present the appearance of an expensive upholstered panel.

In the particular construction shown there is an embossed bead 24 outside the mar'gin of the wadding. It is apparent that if desired the marginal portion of the layer I4 might be otherwise decoratively embossed or that the combined thickness of the margin of layers I0 and I4 might be decoratively embossed.

This particular construction is inexpensive and simple to manufacture. It does not require any careful hand operations or any stitching or the like.

What I claim.:

1. A laminated trim panel comprising, in combination, a foundation lamination, a lamination of Wadding juxtaposing the foundation lamination, and a relatively thin flexible layer lof embossed and self form sustaining composition brous material overlying the wadding and secured to the foundation lamination.

2. A laminated trim panel comprising, in combination, a foundation lamination, a lamination of wadding juxtaposing the foundation lamination, and a relatively thin fiexible layer of self sustaining embossed thermoplastic composition fibrous material secured to the foundation lamination overlying the wadding and holding it to the foundation lamination.

3. A laminated trim panel comprising a foundation layer of fibrous material, a layer of wadding overlying one surface of the foundation layer, a relatively flexible layer of fibrous material impregnated with a thermoplastic binder and carrying an embossed design and being selfform sustaining overlying the wadding and holding the wadding to said design against said foundation layer.

4. A laminated trim panel comprising a foundation layer of fibrous material impregnated with a thermoplastic binder, a layer of Wadding overlying one surface of the foundation layer, a layer of embossed fibrous material impregnated with a thermoplastic binder and being of a selfform sustaining character overlying the wadding and upholstery cloth overlying said last named layer.

5. A laminated trim panel `comprising a selfsupporting moisture resistant foundation layer, a layer of wadding overlying one surface thereof, an embossed self-form sustaining layer of fibrous material impregnated with a thermoplastic binder and overlying the wadding and secured to the foundation layer holding the wadding thereagainst, said embossed layer holding the Wadding to the embossed design of said embossed layer and upholstery trim material overlying said embossed layer.

6. An upholstery trim panel comprising a foundation layer, a layer of wadding overlying a portion of one surface of the foundation layer, a layer of thermoplastic embossed self-form sustaining material overlying the wadding and provided with an embossment encircling the wadding beyond the margin thereof, said last named layer being secured to the foundation layer beyond the margin of the wadding.

'7. A laminated panel comprising a foundation layer, a layer of Wadding overlying a portion of one surface of the foundation layer, an embossed self sustaining layer of fibrous material containing a thermoplastic binder adhesively secured to4 the foundation layer beyond the margin of the wadding and positioningthe wadding upon the foundation layer and upholstery covering material extending over said wadding and layer of fibrous material and adhesively secured in place.

8. A laminated structure comprising two layers of fibrous material leach impregnated with a thermoplastic binder, at least one of said layers having a design embossed therein and being of a self-form sustaining character, and a layer oi wadding interposed between said layers of fibrous thermoplastic material.

MEREDITH S. RANDALL. 

